Can tests of statistical significance be carried out and reported?
A second threat was the failure to conduct and report tests of statistical significance, especially in studies in which this was feasible. An effort should be made to determine whether observed trends are statistically significant. This piece of information is crucial to the development of scientific knowledge. Have inclusion and exclusion criteria for subjects been thought out carefully and applied? Failure to apply criteria with respect to subject recruitment and selection opens the possibility that the results obtained will not be due to the variable being manipulated experimentally, but due to some characteristic of the subject. For example, poorly fitting sockets might invalidate any findings about the effects of alignment perturbation on gait. It is important to formalize inclusion and exclusion criteria in a protocol and then report it in the article.
